Getting typecast

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes, if you do a good job in an acting role, you get typecast.  And sometimes, when you've been masterful in a role, you get almost superstitious about it, and you start to worry that you'll never "hit it" like that again.  And sometimes, when you perform well at work, the boss keeps giving you the same challenge over and over because you are successful in that role.  I know a pastor or two who have helped turn around some declining churches, and now they keep getting appointed to declining churches even though they would love the challenge of a different kind of appointment.

Sometimes our past successes, and our past failures, keep us from moving outside our comfort zone and taking risks.

I'm making some pretty bold moves to try some new and innovative things over the next year or two, and it's a little scary.  I'm stretching myself and hoping to develop some new skills.  I'm trying to re-define a lot of things in my life and work and to create a more balanced way of living and earning, and it's going to challenge me and those around me to see a lot of things in a new way, a broader way, and I hope, a healthier way. 

The old paradigm for work no longer works.  The increased leisure time that "progress" was supposed to create has simply created in most of us an almost pathological desire for stuff, for more, for bigger.  That paradigm is toxic. 

So, I'm preparing for a new way, and scared that others won't understand it.  I am "loathe to disappoint."  But I'm going there anyway, because there is nothing more thrilling than a new challenge.  I apologize in advance if me moving forward makes anyone uncomfortable, but in the end, I agree with Emerson...our consistency can often stand in the way of trusting our deepest self.

I have no interest in getting out of the box.  I don't believe in the reality of the box in the first place.